By David Draine
Are states investing enough in roads and bridges to prevent them from falling apart and to avoid leaving future generations on the hook for a costly repair bill? Historically, a lack of consistent information on the condition and needs of this infrastructure in states has limited policymakers’ ability to answer this question, prevented governments from making fully informed investment decisions to address maintenance backlogs, and hindered public accountability and transparency about whether decisions are fiscally sustainable.
With these limitations in mind, The Pew Charitable Trusts examined data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to estimate state and local deferred maintenance backlogs for roadways from 1999 through 2023.2 For the purposes of this analysis, “roadways” refers to state and locally owned roads, bridges, and related structures and assets, or what the BEA data categorizes as “highways and streets.”
This blog has been sourced from the official website of The Pew Charitable Trusts and can be accessed here